Timothy D. Raub is a Corpus Christi Personal Injury Lawyer.
One of the most dedicated law firms helping local citizens get back more from hardships and injuries.
According to Wikipedia, a personal injury lawyer is a lawyer who provides legal services to those who claim to have been injured, physically or psychologically, as a result of the negligence of another person, company, government agency or any entity. Personal injury lawyers primarily practice in the area of law known as tort law. Examples of common personal injury claims include injuries from slip and fall accidents, traffic collisions, defective products, workplace injuries and professional malpractice.
The term “trial lawyers” is used to refer to personal injury lawyers, even though many other types of lawyers, including defense lawyers and criminal prosecutors also appear in trials and even though most personal injury claims are settled without going to trial.
The most common complaint against personal injury attorneys is that they do not communicate with their clients. Fairly often, people have complained that their personal injury lawyer will not return their telephone calls. When this starts to happen, you become anxious as your questions go unanswered. Every personal injury litigation process is an extremely complicated and emotionally charged affair. You need accurate information and clarification on the countless issues determining if a case is legitimate and real. In almost every case, skillful Corpus Christi defense lawyers can find a way to make the plaintiff look bad. No case is perfect, ever. Perhaps the plaintiff has had prior accidents or has an underlying degenerative physical condition that might be at least a partial cause of his or her pain. Many jurors and arbitrators are simply looking for anything to use to return a very low award or to find in favor of the defendant outright. Because of this, plaintiff’s lawyers have to be much more careful about the cases they accept. The plaintiff’s lawyer generally pays the legal costs of the case up front and only gets paid at the successful conclusion of the case. Because of this, it is hard to find a personal injury lawyer to take on cases that are not strong, both in terms of liability and damages. Only relatively small cases are settled these days prior to suit being filed. The only way an insurance company can do a complete investigation of a case is by subpoenaing records from the plaintiff’s past and by taking the plaintiff’s deposition. Since subpoenas and depositions are not available before a suit(lawsuit) is filed, insurance companies make only low ball offers in all but smaller cases. The companies assume that the subpoenas and depositions will turn up information that can be used to diminish the value of the case and very often they are correct in this assumption. For example, if a subpoena produces records showing a related preexisting medical condition, this drives down the settlement value of the case. The insurance companies will assume the worst about a plaintiff until an exhaustive investigation satisfies the insurer of the relative merit of the claim. It is important to understand these new realities so that you will have a realistic view of your case. You cannot expect a quick settlement and you cannot expect your personal injury lawyer to work miracles.
On the other hand, if you have an accident, you go to the doctor once or twice, you have some pain at first but it all goes away fairly quickly and your doctors are confident that you will not likely have any future problems, then you may not need a lawyer. If you can get the insurance company to pay you for your bills and give you something reasonable left over for your pain and trouble, then you don’t need a personal injury lawyer. If you are unable to reach a reasonable settlement, hire a lawyer. Even if you choose not to hire a lawyer to represent you in your claim, because of the different laws of different states, particularly regarding time limitations for filing suits, you should at least contact a lawyer and discuss your claim, no matter how small you think it is. Who knows, maybe you will find out that your claim is more complicated than you thought and that you really should have a lawyer represent you. One of the most important things to remember about settling a claim for personal injuries is that you must not settle your claim too soon. Many people do not realize that once you settle your claim and sign a release from an insurance company, your claim is over and cannot be reopened. In other words, if the insurance company offers you a cash settlement a few days after the accident, you accept it and then find out you are going to need many costly surgeries that will not nearly be covered by the settlement—too bad. In some states, by law, an insurance company cannot ask a claimant to sign a release within a certain period of time after the accident and, if they do, the agreement may be cancelled by the claimant.
History of the Personal Injury Attorney
The legal profession has its origins in ancient Greece and Rome. Although in Greece it was forbidden to take payment for pleading the cause of another, the rule was widely flouted. After the time of Claudius, lawyers (iuris consulti) could practise openly, although their remuneration was limited. A skilled and regulated profession developed gradually during the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire: advocates acquired more status, and a separate class of notaries (tabelliones) appeared.
In Western Europe, the legal profession went into decline during the Dark Ages, re-emerging during the 12th and 13th centuries in the form of experts on canon law. The profession started to be regulated and to extend its reach to civil as well as ecclesiastical law.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54. Born to Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate, he was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy. Claudius personally judged many of the legal cases tried during his reign. Ancient historians have many complaints about this, stating that his judgments were variable and sometimes did not follow the law.
Around the middle of the fourth century, the Athenians disposed of the perfunctory request for a friend. A more serious obstacle, which the Athenian orators never completely overcame, was the rule that no one could take a fee to plead the cause of another. This law was widely disregarded in practice, but was never abolished, which meant that orators could never present themselves as legal professionals or experts. The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor Claudius, who legalized advocacy as a profession and allowed the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practice openly. In ancient Rome, Emperor Claudius legalized the legal profession and even allowed lawyers (also known as advocates) to charge a limited fee. However, the fees that Roman lawyers could charge was simply not enough money for the services provided which made making a living tough. Also, the early legal profession was stratified with lawyers that specialized in the law and others that specialized in rhetoric which meant that clients might have to visit two different lawyers to handle their case. But this specialization also meant that Roman laws became more precise since there was an entire class of people who focused on just studying and understanding the law.
He extended the summer court session, as well as the winter term, by shortening the traditional breaks. Claudius also made a law requiring plaintiffs to remain in the city while their cases were pending, as defendants had previously been required to do. These measures had the effect of clearing out the docket. The minimum age for jurors was also raised to 25 in order to ensure a more experienced jury pool. Numerous edicts were issued throughout Claudius’ reign. These were on a number of topics, everything from medical advice to moral judgments. A famous medical example is one promoting yew juice as a cure for snakebite. Suetonius wrote that he is even said to have thought of an edict allowing public flatulence for good health. One of the more famous edicts concerned the status of sick slaves. Masters had been abandoning ailing slaves at the temple of Aesculapius on Tiber Island to die instead of providing them with medical assistance and care, and then reclaiming them if they lived. Claudius ruled that slaves who were thus abandoned and recovered after such treatment would be free. Furthermore, masters who chose to kill slaves rather than take care of them were liable to be charged with murder.
By the fourth century, advocates had to be enrolled on the bar of a court to argue before it, they could only be attached to one court at a time, and there were restrictions (which came and went depending upon who was emperor) on how many advocates could be enrolled at a particular court. By the 380s, advocates were studying law in addition to rhetoric (thus reducing the need for a separate class of jurisconsults); in 460, Emperor Leo imposed a requirement that new advocates seeking admission had to produce testimonials from their teachers; and by the sixth century, a regular course of legal study lasting about four years was required for admission. Claudius’s fee ceiling lasted all the way into the Byzantine period, though by then it was measured at 100 solidi. Of course, it was widely evaded, either through demands for maintenance and expenses or a sub rosa barter transaction. The latter was cause for disbarment
After the fall of the western Roman Empire and the onset of the Early Middle Ages, the legal profession of Western Europe collapsed. From 1150 onward, a small but increasing number of men became experts in canon law but only in furtherance of other occupational goals, such as serving the Roman Catholic Church as priests. The new trend towards professionalization culminated in a controversial proposal at the Second Council of Lyon in 1275 that all ecclesiastical courts should require an oath of admission. Although not adopted by the council, it was highly influential in many such courts throughout Europe. The civil courts in England also joined the trend towards professionalization; in 1275 a statute was enacted that prescribed punishment for professional lawyers guilty of deceit, and in 1280 the mayor’s court of the city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures, including the administering of an oath.
Lawyers became powerful local and colony-wide leaders by 1700 in the American colonies. They grew increasingly powerful in the colonial era as experts in the English common law, which was adopted by all the colonies. By the 21st century, over one million practitioners in the United States held law degrees, and many others served the legal system as justices of the peace, paralegals, marshalls, and other aides. Twenty-five of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence were lawyers.
Today, lawyers must earn an undergraduate degree before going on to earn their J.D.. Some aspiring lawyers choose an LB or LLB as their undergraduate degree while others choose something different. In any case, it’s important to connect to the history of the legal profession, how it developed over time and how that history impacts the rules and customs accepted in today’s legal profession.
Over the five years to 2019, the Personal Injury Lawyers and Attorneys industry is projected to grow an annualized 1.9% to $36.9 billion. Industry operators have benefited from an increase in the average age of the US population; older individuals are more likely to have slip-and-fall accidents, which can yield personal injury cases. Growth in the number of car accidents during the period is expected boost the number of civil suits brought to court, supporting industry growth along with the slight increase in the number of work-related deaths.
Life As A Personal Injury Lawyer in Corpus Christi
Wake up in the morning still feeling tired from the day before. Missed multiple phone calls and its not even 8 AM yet. Depositions today and people to help. But at what cost? Everyone is depending on you and its the last minute of the hour and you got an appointment. Do I look alright? Am I mentally ready enough to help this new client? Are they going to expect a lot from me? You bet.
This me is ready and it’s everyday that I love doing my job. I get up in the morning to help people against being taken advantage of, everyday. The ones taking advantage of my clients; the insurance companies. They have contracts and they know how to avoid paying the full premium of their clients’ contracts. It’s my job to get my clients every penny they deserve. Especially when they go through one of the toughest situations any human can face; injury, loss of time, money, sometimes their vehicle, and a lot of hardship.
My law firm and I work everyday to get our clients their life back to before the accident with money in their pockets and everything taken care of. It’s our job, our goal, and we love doing it. No matter how many hours after closing we stay to sort through paperwork and juggle back and forth with adjusters. We try our hardest to avoid lawsuits. But it always comes to an end. At that end, we want every client satisfied, that’s our mission, that’s our life, that’s our job.